Life's a Bang
by avenged
Summary: Oneshot, DeiSaku. If you have taught me anything, Deidara, it is this: we are more alike than we will ever know.


**A/N:** If you haven't been keeping up with the manga, there will be spoilers ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you.

**Disclaimer:** Do you really think I'd allow all these guys to wear shirts if I owned Naruto?

* * *

She slipped, silent as the grave (how fitting, she thought), through the village gates and into the woods, her presence nothing but a shadow blending into the darkness of the trees.

They whispered to her.

_Naughty girl._

She moved lightly, the soles of her sandals barely making contact with the branches as she flew through the night, the gentle wind carrying her far away, far, far away to a life she was forbidden to lead.

He came into view, perched atop a tree, and through his mask, she could feel his spinning Sharingan eyes watching her intently.

He fell into step beside her, easily matching her pace.

"Let's go."

* * *

"_You're something of a spitfire, aren't you?" he chuckled, rapping his knuckles against Gaara's stone-cold forehead. "But you control it better than Foxy over there."_

_Her eyes were glass, their emerald hue growing dangerously dark. "You're one to talk."_

* * *

"It was Sasuke, wasn't it?" she asked, an edge of bitterness to her voice.

He simply nodded.

She turned away from him and ran faster, becoming nothing but a blur, even to his well-trained eyes.

"You're going to kill him, aren't you?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"Not now. Now…I must mourn." Her hand snapped up, snatching a leaf out of the air and crushing it to dust between her fingers. "But one of these days. One of these days."

* * *

"_So," she began, twirling a kunai absentmindedly, "are you really a boy?"_

_Bombs flew at her. She dodged them swiftly._

"_Of course I'm a boy," he snarled viciously, wiping the excess clay off of his hands. "Just because I care about how I look…OWWWWW!"_

_Deidara collapsed, clutching his groin and moaning in pain._

_She smirked and turned away. "Just making sure."_

* * *

"You do realize that we don't have a body," he added, almost as an afterthought.

She stiffened visibly beside him but kept her composure. "Yes."

"Sakura…" he said softly, regretfully. "You know…that this is what he wanted…to go fleetingly…"

"Because art is fleeting," she finished. "Like that," she snapped, just as he used to do, "you're gone."

* * *

"_I could kill you," he laughed, his hand clutching her throat. "I could twist my wrist, snap your throat, and throw you aside like a broken doll. But instead…"_

_He pressed his lips against hers, savoring her taste as she tried to squirm away._

"_Mmm," he said smugly, pulling away and dropping her to the ground._

_She landed in a heap, violently coughing and spitting. _

"_And what," she finally managed to choke out, "was that for?"_

_He shrugged. "Life's a bang, kiddo. Life's a bang."_

* * *

"Here we are," Madara announced, dropping to the ground, Sakura hot on his tail.

She followed him silently as he walked across the grassy plain, the stars sparkling on the velvety carpet of the sky.

No one else emerged.

"It's just you and me, isn't it?" she stated simply, no question in her tone.

"Indeed," he replied, dropping to his knees atop a slight rise in the ground. "Just as he would have wanted."

* * *

"_Ironic, eh?" he asked, lying beneath her, face blackened and bloodied as she readied herself for the final punch._

"_I always thought I…would end up on top."_

_She almost did it, almost dealt the lethal blow, but something stopped her. _

_Something in his eyes._

Desperation.

_She lowered her fist and stood. "I don't think you're really that evil," she said. _

_She offered him her hand and pulled him to feet, letting him steady himself on her shoulder._

"_No, kiddo, I'm not," he said, absently brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Just trying to make my way in the world. Just like everybody else."_

* * *

"I'd like to be the one…to do it."

Madara nodded and handed her the finger. "Here."

She held it close to her, completely ignoring that it smelled of blood and rotting flesh.

Because, even more so, it smelled like _him._

* * *

_They lay together, his hand rubbing small circles on her shoulder as she breathed deeply. In and out, in and out._

"_I don't want…to kill you," she finally said, almost too softly for him to hear._

"_Well, I don't want you to either, if that makes you feel any better."_

_She slapped him playfully as he took her into his embrace. "You know what will happen if anyone finds us. If I'm seen leaving the village. If you're spotted within the boundaries of the Fire Country. If…"_

_He cut her off with a chaste kiss, loving how the curves of her body melted into his._

"_We'll go out with a bang, then, won't we?"_

* * *

"Madara," she said suddenly. "Will you shield us?"

Rapidly formed hand seals and a few well-chosen words were his form of reply.

Confident that no one would hear her, she removed a small lump from her kunai pouch. His last present to her.

Exploding clay.

* * *

"_You can do it too, you know," he remarked. "Make bombs, I mean. It's not difficult if you've got the brains for it."_

"_Then Kami only knows how you manage," she teased, taking the clay from him and squishing it between her palms._

"_Not so rough, kiddo. Like this," and he took her hands, gently guiding her fingers around the clay, and with his help, Sakura made her first bomb._

"_You keep that," he said, hugging her goodbye. "Work with it. See what you can do."_

_She turned to leave, but something stopped her._

"_I have this feeling…that I won't see you again."_

_He shrugged. "It's likely. The fighting's beginning to escalate."_

_She ran to him, throwing herself against his body and clinging desperately to his robe, almost as though if she let go, the wind would carry him away. _

"_I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know why…but I love you."_

"_I know," he murmured, stroking her hair. "I know."_

* * *

Slowly, carefully, just as he had taught her, she shaped the wings, the feet, and finally, the head.

She set it and the finger down in the grass.

"Stand back or shield yourself," she barked, suddenly very much the strong kunoichi Madara had come to know so well.

From behind his mask, he smiled at her. _She'll do well. _

She stepped back, her hands in position.

"Kai!"

* * *

_She was right, he thought as he chewed the clay. She was always right._

"_Uchiha," he whispered as his body began to swell. "She's all yours now."_

_Now he was towering, towering far above his opponent and the treetops, towering so high that, he hoped, that from wherever she was, she could see him. That she could see the desperation still residing in his eyes._

Know this, Sakura. Know, though I never said it.

Life is fleeting.

But ours…was too short.

_And he exploded._

* * *

"Thank you, Madara," she finally said as they reached the outskirts of Konoha. She had not spoken at all on their way back.

"The next time I see you, it will be from the opposite side of the battlefield," he said, nodding. "It was the least I could do."

She attempted a smile and turned away, her face towards the village that she had sworn to protect.

"We are not so different," she said.

"Sakura…"

"I know, I know. Our motives conflict. Our goals are on opposite ends of the scale. We could never be allies. But maybe, in a different world…we could be friends."

_If you taught me one thing, Deidara, it is this._

_We are more alike than we will ever know._

"I had better go," Madara said, straightening his robe. "It's only a matter of time before someone notices my presence."

She nodded solemnly.

"Stay strong, Sakura."

"The same to you."

And he disappeared into the shadows.

_Just like that,_ she thought. _Another chapter of my life…gone._

_So fleeting._

She started walking.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow, without him? Tomorrow, when she was back to being alone?

She pinched a small piece of clay between her fingers—the very last piece that she had.

"Kai."

It popped before vanishing in a puff of smoke—and for a moment, she saw his face in the small explosion.

She smiled.

_Tomorrow…_

_will be a bang._


End file.
